ARJEL committee seeks regulatory reform

French regulator ARJEL has announced the formation of a committee of external consultants to investigate more effective methods of regulation and prevent sports betting numbers from declining any further. This will be followed by the authority separately submitting reports on ways to expand and improve four key areas of the current regulatory framework including reinforcing player funds and licensing skill games.

ARJEL board members Laurent Sorbier and Jean-Luc Pain will jointly chair the committee which will look into the regulation of the online gambling sector and new technologies.

They will be joined by four external consultants; Philippe Bailly, president and CEO of media consulting agency NPA Conseil; divisional commissioner of the Ministry of the Interior Stéphane Tijardovic; Comptroller of the general council of industry, energy and technology at the Ministry of the Economy Dominique Varenne; and Franck Veysset, head of the national agency of the security of information systems CERTA.

The committee will examine effective methods of secure and effective regulation, and will regulatory consult with licensed operators and associations with the aim to create a more effective framework for sports betting. This will be followed by the formation of a second committee, which will look at ways of how to effectively regulate gambling on new technology, after it was revealed that 13% of online gambling was conducted on mobile devices, and 2% on tablets.

The regulator will submit four reports to the Ministry of the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform, looking at methods of expanding the current framework. One report will look at licensing further variants of poker, while a second will look at cash games and online skill games, and a third will look at ways to implement a central system to monitor individual players’ activities online. The final report, prompted by the collapse of Full Tilt following, will look at reinforcing the security of player funds.

Following president Jean-François Vilotte’s admission in January that the decline in the French egaming sector is “cause for concern,” ARJEL has announced that it will also research effective ways of changing regulation.

The reports are thought to have been designed with the intention of pushing for the recommendations made to be passed into law, rather than as suggestions for potential change.

This follows the release of ARJEL’s Q4 figures earlier this month, in which sports betting declined 23% for the second consecutive quarter, and amounts wagered on cash poker falling 3% year-on-year. Despite amounts wagered for horse betting being up 38% and active player accounts for poker tournaments rising 16%, Vilotte admitted that he fears a continuing decline would see players return to unlicensed sites.

In ARJEL’s opening ceremony of vows in January this year, Vilotte hinted at expanding regulation, announcing plans to submit a report looking at new and sustainable methods of licensing skill games for the French market. The reports will take a minimum of three months to compile, and possibly as long as six to nine months.